In all seriousness, the reason behind this distinction has always escaped me. I suppose there might be some leftover puritanical mindset in the U.S. but how it manages to persist mystifies me.
It baffles me too. And I’m an Amurican.
I suppose it goes well with the attitude: “Those sickos are talking about sex! Kill them!”
Heh.
Okay this is a real hijack, but this just reminded me of a movie I was watching on AMC. It was during October and they were showing slasher flicks every night. During one scene, a girl gets hacked up getting out of the shower. As she’s being knifed to death, screaming, her breasts are scrambled, so we don’t have anything inappropriate on basic cable.
Anyway, I thought Samclem was right. Ick. As a factual question, it’s different, but saying “How can I simulate rape?” Reading about it is not really the same as performing it by proxy.
Except that there’s no rape involved…
Obviously not. That would make it an actual crime, of course. Everything that is legal is not necessarily allowed on any given message board.
I don’t recall you every parsing the fact that I am not a big Bush supporter, nor did I ever vote for the man. Nor do I ever recall defending the practice that you are talking about (although I believe I did defend the idea of designated protest areas at one point-Free Speech does not mean you have the right to say anything you want anywhere you damn well please at any time you care to. In addition, if the event in question is a private function, than the organizers have every right to remove people who do not meet their dress code-just like this private message board has the absolute right to limit what is discussed here. That does not mean that I think doing so is a good idea or the correct policy.). So…what does this have to do with this thread again? Or are you just behind on your gratuitous Bush bashing quota for the week?
As a minor observation hardly worth mentioning, the novel that introduced most of us to the concept of thought-crime also included one character’s angry fantasy of raping and killing another.
I don’t agree with it either, but I suspect that many/most parents believe that their children are more likely to enjoy and seek to imitate sex scenes than scenes of violence.
Just have to lob a pair of off topic pennies at y’all… but it’s always struck me as bass ackwards that if you show a naked woman’s breasts, it’s horrible, but if you show a naked woman’s breasts getting hacked off with an axe? Good popcorn movie!
I agree with SamClem 100%. To me it’s like asking, “How do I behead the hostage in Terrorist Training Camp I?”
The point is not that it’s just a videogame and no harm is actually done to a human. The point is that the videogame dehumanizes people. Fantasizing about violence is almost always a precursor to committing violence. Let’s not give posters an outlet to feed those fantasies.
Cite?
'cos that’s certainly not my experience, and I fantasize about violence a lot…
Ban grand theft auto?
Fact: the number of violent video games is increasing.
Fact: crime among youth is decreasing.
Theory A: an un-accounted-for factor greater than video games is decreasing teen violence faster than video games can increase it.
Theory B: violent video games do not cause people to perform violent acts.
Seriously. When I was in Books-A-Million the other day, I saw a teenage girl purchase the entire Kushiel series. If people were really worried about what children were being exposed to, they’d be in the bookstores and libraries.
Nearly ALL video games fantasize violence, so all we’d have left is a sanitized version of Simcity where all the disasters have been removed.
Is it possible that there’s a misunderstanding in that thread? To me, asking about which button combinations are used to do something in a game is a question about the game mechanics, and is a completely legitimate discussion. To people without much familiarity with games, though, it could sound a lot like ‘give me intructions on how to carry out rape fantasies in videogames’, which is not necessarily what the OP was after.
~ Isaac
Not everyone who fantasizes about raping a woman will actually do the deed. But I daresay that every man who has raped a woman has fantasized about it first.
If you’d like a cite, then try reading any of the profiles of a serial rapist or serial killer. Fantasy always precludes the act. IMO, that’s why videogames and websites that glorify violence are dangerous.
I don’t have it in my power to ban Grand Auto Theft as I have not been elected to office. (A great lamentation, to be sure.) As a paying member, I do have it in my power to voice my opinion about what happens here. And I think that SamClem was spot on when he carefully controlled a query as to how to go about committing a virtual rape.
Won’t somebody please think of the children?
It reminds me of this Parking Lot is Full comic.
Then let me hope that you never, ever hold a public office where you can censor those things you don’t like.
No, PunditLisa is right. It’s only three months since I bought and started playing Medieval: Total War and already I’m assembling a crack force of spearmen, swordsmen and arbalesters and planning to invade Flanders. I am a helpless tool of my computer games.
Next up: 99% of rapists put on a pair of pants that morning, so ban pants.
Stupid sexy Flanders.